LCD display and soldering it

In one of my buying rages, I included a LCD display for 3.95eu. Now I got Hello world working on my LCD screen!!!

The LCD screen is really simple to get working:
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/LiquidCrystal

The only thing that would give me problems is soldering the headers on. I really could not solder one month ago, no really... I could not. I had ordered a bunch of deans plugs to solder to my lipo battery, but I melted them all.

I blamed the 30 watt soldering iron and I bought a 60 watt. 60 watts ought to be enough for anybody. But still, I could not solder...

Many burn marks on my fingers and a bunch of molten plugs later, I still could not solder. So I asked a friend to solder the plugs on and that looked really really easy... After a complete step by step walkthru, I figured I should be able to solder. Two weeks later after walking through the soldering steps many times in my head, I finally pickup my soldering iron and some scraps and started soldering everything together. And guess what?! After a few tries, I finally managed to solder things together. Actually, it was as easy as it seemed when watching my friend solder.

So, what was I doing wrong? It is simple, I did not tin the tip of the solder iron... I knew I had to tin the tip, I tried to tin the tip, but the tin just fell right off. Even after sanding and filing the tip, the tin did not really stick But I was thinking it was okay like that... I did not have a wet sponge to clean the tip and you really need a wet sponge or cloth to clean the tip properly.

So tinning your tip correctly is crucial! The molten tin transfers the heat from the tinned tip to the object to solder. Clean the tip with sandpaper and the sponge, and tin the tip directly after, let the tin stay on the tip. Clean the tip and you're ready to go. The tip should be nice and shiny now...

So, what did I learn?

• Tin the tip
• You really need a wet sponge
• Clean the tip often
• Do not let your object get too hot
• Soldering should not take more than 2 seconds
• Especially PCBs, they should be soldered even faster.
• 30 watt is enough to solder, only really fat wires do require a bigger tip or bigger iron.
• Practice for an evening
• Get some scraps and solder everything together
• Don't forget to practice desoldering

Finally I soldered the headers onto the display in 15 seconds with my 30 wat iron, a real piece of cake! And got Hello World displayed following the LCD tutorial.

Please click on the image and notice the solder joints, they seem perfect to me...

Never thought that controlling a LCD display could be that simple... In one of my next posts I will display something more useful on the LCD display.